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That rustling emanating from Auburn Hills as Thursday’s 3 p.m. trading deadline passed was the flapping of the proverbial lame duck.

The Pistons didn’t make a deal because I strongly doubt owner Tom Gores will permit Joe Dumars to do anything that could have inched this dysfunctional roster a little closer to a sacrificial No. 8 Eastern Conference playoff seeding. If it wasn’t obvious when Gores demanded Maurice Cheeks’ firing 50 games into the season, it’s clear now that the Pistons are stuck in limbo — wandering rudderless in the shallow waters until ownership determines its next desired course.

And I doubt if ownership knows what it wants.

The Pistons remain a frustratingly reactionary franchise — reflexive often without sound reason.

Obviously, making the playoffs wasn’t a mandatory edict from Gores, because if he was truly serious about that, he would have demanded more than the sound of crickets from the Pistons’ executive offices before the trade deadline while other teams made necessary tweaks.

Is he now leaning toward another rebooting?

The operative organizational strategy from this point forward must be keeping Andre Drummond from growing disgruntled. He is getting that look about him. You know the look Lions players get often? He was one of the biggest stars of All-Star Weekend, earning most valuable player honors with a 30-point, 25-rebound effort in the Rising Stars Challenge.

The potential explosiveness on both sides of the floor was evident in New Orleans last weekend. It’s easier seeing that potential when Drummond is surrounded with pieces that complement his strengths rather than stagnating any growth. He definitely needs a reliable low-post offensive move, a drop-set similar to what Hakeem Olajuwon adopted after relying on his extraordinary athleticism in his early years in the NBA.

Josh Smith, with his $54-million contractual albatross, has become the popular scapegoat. There was speculation that the Pistons offered Smith to some teams as the hour grew closer to 3 p.m. There was no word of how loud the laughter was on the receiving end of those phone calls when the Pistons supposedly demanded more than additional expiring contracts for their huge free-agent gamble last summer.

But I’d still like to see Smith at his more natural power forward spot with Drummond on the floor. There’s something salvageable, but that would require the Pistons putting the proper pieces around them such as a scoring small forward and another shooting guard who would punish opposing defenses for constantly sagging down low.

What the Smith bashers miss is that even if the Pistons found a sucker to take that $54 million off their hands, they still would have the problem of two young big men in Drummond and Monroe who don’t complement each other on the floor because Monroe still lacks the necessary midrange offensive game to give Drummond more operating room under the basket.

Deadline day silence became just the latest disappointment in what is quickly going down as one the bigger letdowns in recent Pistons memory. Did they even attempt to pry small forward Evan Turner from a rebuilding Philadelphia team? Instead, according to media reports, Indiana got him for a physically eroding Danny Granger.